Rob Reiner Reveals John Mayer Almost Worked on the PRINCESS BRIDE Musical

We’ve certainly got enough movie-to-stage adaptations going around with The Lion King, Aladdin, Cinderella, Newsies, Matilda,Rocky and more currently up and running, but that isn’t stopping anyone from churning out even more. In fact, Disney’s in the process of bringing Frozen to Broadway, and after that film scored well over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, it’s hard to imagine that production being anything less than a major hit.

The trend’s been around for a while and is poised to continue, so while at a roundtable interview with Rob Reiner for his upcoming film, And So It Goes, we discussed which of his films he thinks most deserves the Broadway treatment – The Princess Bride. Hit the jump to find out who was once attached to work on it.

When asked which of his films is best suited for the stage, Reiner didn’t hesitate; he immediately went for The Princess Bride. He even recalled his past attempts to actually make a Princess Bride musical happen:

“I’ve talked to Mark Shaiman about it. He said, ‘I wouldn’t know what to do. I mean, it’s too good a movie. I can’t imagine.’ I talked to Randy Newman who also [couldn’t do it]. [There] was a moment where John Mayer who I thought had a sense of humor and could do some interesting lyrics and then he said he was gonna do it, then he backed out because he said, ‘It’s too much. I can’t do it.’”

Mayer’s a brilliant musician who’s contributed to quite a few movie soundtracks, including Reiner’s 2007 release, The Bucket List, but with just one composer credit to his name, a TV documentary called American Heroes Saltwater Challenge, considering him a solid option to handle a Broadway production is a tough sell. Reiner admitted that it’d be a difficult gig for anyone, but still insisted that with the right person, it could work.

“So it really requires finding the right composer because there are certain moments in the film – as you wish, a great love song and, you know, the battle of wits and inconceivable and, you know, my name is Inigo Montoya – there’s a lot of areas where you could put music, but you need somebody who really, really has a sense of the same thing that the movie has, which is, there’s the love story and the adventure, and then there’s also a little bit bent and you’re poking fun at the same time, you know. So it’s a tricky little line to walk.”

Hopefully William Goldman is capable of walking that line yet again because as reported by THR back in November, the Princess Bride musical really is a go and Disney Theatrical Productions has tapped Goldman to bring his original 1973 fairy tale to life again. Reiner made no mention of this specific endeavor in the interview, but apparently this is happening. However, whereas Reiner asserted The Princess Bride is prime for the musical route, Disney is still trying to decide between making the piece a musical or a play. But really, isn’t that a no-brainer?

Here’s Rob Reiner talking about The Princess Bride musical. Look for the full interview soon.

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